The present invention is directed to an automatic seat belt device which enables a webbing to be automatically fastened around a body of an occupant on a vehicle seat with a driving means.
An automatic seat belt device of this type which is being generally used employs a guide rail attached to inner vehicle wall along a door opening. A slider is slidably supported by the guide rail. An outer end portion of the webbing is connected with this slider, the webbing being moved by driving the slider through the intermediary of an elongate member.
In the automatic seat belt device having the above-described construction, the slider stopping mechanism is provided at an end of the slider movement where the webbing is fastened around the body of the occupant on the vehicle seat. This stopping mechanism serves to stop the slider movement by stopping the operation of the driving means.
Japanese patent publication No. 46354/1986 discloses a slider stopping mechanism which includes an actuator operated by the slider and a switch actuated by the operation of this actuator. The actuator is operated when the slider reaches an end of its movement, thereby stopping the operation of the driving means.
It is further known with respect to an automatic seat belt device having the above-described construction that a slider lock mechanism adapted to keep the slider locked can be provided at an end of the slider movement where a webbing is fastened to a body of the occupant on the vehicle seat.
In an automatic seat belt device having both the slider lock mechanism and the slider stopping mechanism, it is rather difficult to find an appropriate space distribution for these two mechanisms. If a relatively long actuator is employed so as to evade the slider lock mechanism, the entire housing section for both the mechanisms becomes rather long. If, on the other hand, a relatively short actuator is employed so that the length of the entire housing section may be shorter, the switch protrudes into the vehicle inner space, a width of the housing section becoming rather large.